Cool recipes for hot people
From the Earl of Sandwich fast forward to Metcalf’s empire, our desperate need for comfort food and the meagre 15 minutes of lunch break (even when working from home), are shouting out at us: give me a sandwich! I hereby present the best tuna sandwich filler you have ever tried! On sourdough obviously…
Head straight to the recipe.
I am very tempted to say that it was not the 4th Earl of Sandwich but the Greeks that invented this wonderful conception, My Big Fat Greek wedding style…Come to think of it though, the sandwich is possibly the biggest contribution of the Brits to modern gastronomy, so this time, I will let it slip. Because we all love a good story.
Especially when the story is spiced with a tiny bit of gossip that involves an aristocrat. Rumour has it, the first sandwich was ordered by John Montagu over a gambling table. ‘Two slices of bread and salted meat’, he ordered the servants.
It caught on, everyone was ordering this same thing as Sandwich. thus the sandwich. Apparently, the bread very satisfyingly replaced the fork and kept their fingers free of grease so they could hold on the playing cards.
According to the biographer of the 18th century statesman, however, it was the busy work schedule of the earl that gave life to sandwich. He wouldn’t lift his eyes from his desk, they said, many argued the opposite. But we can leave this to historians to sort out.
Fast forward to our day, we don’t lift our eyes from our screens and we keep these keyboards grease-free and hot by typing.
If you ask me, I much rather have the first myth, spiced up with John Montagu’s achievements on playing cards, mistresses, cricket and have you. Poor sods, we are, us marketers, having to come up with just about anything to make a story work. (I might, just might, be a little bored of seeing Greek food accompanied by meandrus, bouzouki and a story of an ancient Greek God/goddess along with nutritional information).
Let’s have a cool sandwich for hot weather though. Million thanks to my friend Dorie from Mostly Greek, her family recipe for this satisfying filler is second to none. Of course it has a Greek twist too!
Tuna Sandwich
Ingredients
- 1 can of tuna
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- ¼ tsp. Dijon mustard or more to taste
- 2 Tbsp. capers or chopped dill pickles or both!
- 1 tsp. juice from the capers or pickles
- ¼ c. chopped fresh fennel or dill
- 1 green onions sliced green parts included
- 1/2 stalks celery diced
- gr crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- Drain the liquid from the cans of tuna, and put the tuna into a bowl. If you find a good quality tuna in olive oil, preserve and use a bit later, you can halve the mayonnaise.
- Break up the tuna with a fork.
- Mix together mayo, mustard and a bit of the preserved olive oil.
- Follow with finely chopped celery, spring onion, capers and dill or fennel and mix thoroughly.
- Add the feta at the end in order to gently mix it in without smearing it into goo
Notes
I hope you enjoy this quick filler as much as I did. It is as quick as it is delicious and it also works great without the feta cheese, in case you have run out (I promise I will not tell)
From London with love,
Eugenia
Earl & the Sandwich sources:
How the sandwich consumed Britain
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich
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